Old Friends
by hey.moon.hello.goodbye
Summary: Bad title, sorry. George is closing the shop one day a month after the battle at Hogwarts, and he gets visited by an old friend. Who, you ask? Angelina, of course. Slight GW/AJ


**A/N: An Angelina/George one-shot. It's short and a bit fluffy, but they're just friends in this. Please read and review? **

"Right, Verity, you can go home now," George called out.

The blonde-haired assistant smiled and waved. "Alright, Mr. Weasley, I'll just… be going, then. Do you want me to lock it behind me?"

"No. I will; it's fine."

She nodded, waved again, and walked out of the shop. George sighed and started wiping down the front counter. It had gotten dirty again today.

George watched his hand swipe across the marble countertop carefully. He had started doing manual work for certain things, like making his bed or feeding his owl. He had started turning all his attention to the task at hand: making sure his hands were in the perfect position, double-checking that all the crumbs were off the counter, and cleaning the rag to spotlessness. It took his mind of other things if he just concentrated on one thing at a time.

He was always busy now. Even though his family objected, he'd opened the shop only a month after the end of the war. Business wasn't great, but he knew it would pick up during the late summer.

One thing he hadn't done was moved back into the apartment; he had taken to sleeping at the Burrow on the couch. George was actually thinking about putting it up for rent.

The bell attached to the front doors dinged, and without turning around George said, "Shop's closed."

"That doesn't explain why you're still here."

The female voice was comfortingly familiar, and George spun around. Angelina Johnson stood there, her black hair in two thick braids falling down her back. "Angelina. How are you? What're you doing here?"

She rolled her eyes. "Gee, we were friends for seven years, George. I can't visit an old friend from school?"

George walked over to stand in front of her. "Not a month after a battle that killed your ex-boyfriend and your mother."

Angelina winced visibly, and George was about to apologize before she pulled him into a tight hug. "That's why I came, actually," she whispered in his ear. "I was feeling dreadfully lonely."

"Were you really?" This amused George. Angelina had always had quite a large circle of friends, though Fred and George had been the first to join it on their first day at Hogwarts. It had been hard to have a conversation with Angelina because one of her girl friends would cut in and take her away, Oliver would yell at her about missing Quidditch practice, or Lee Jordan would ask her out (she said no every time).

"Yes," she agreed. "Now, if you don't mind, I'd like to walk with you a bit. We can talk, and then I won't be so lonely. Now, tell me. Have you seen anyone recently?"

George thought for a moment and said, "Well, I've seen my family enough, and I saw Lee a week ago."

"I saw him, too. He seems well, I guess. A bit shaken. I saw Alicia and Katie yesterday. They miss you, you know." She paused. "They're worried."

"Who isn't?" he said bitterly. "Everyone treats me like I'm made of glass. I can deal with things, you know! There's no need for everyone to be worried about me!"

Angelina glared up at him as they stepped onto the cobblestone street of Diagon Alley. "Tell me something I don't know, George. All my mum's old friends come over our house with no warning whatsoever and start looking all sympathetic and saying things like 'You poor dear' or 'You must miss your mother so much'. I'd rather they'd just leave me be, so don't be going barmy over some old friends who are worried."

Her words bit, and George felt regretful about being so harsh with Angelina. "Sorry."

"Yeah, well. Hey, at least that lot didn't come see you. You know what Alicia and Katie made me do? You'll never guess."

"Karaoke?"

Angelina snorted. "No! They made me go shopping, and it was terrible. They were rather discouraged by my hatred of something that apparently every woman except me seems to enjoy."

George laughed. "Don't worry; you're not the only one. My brother's girlfriend – Hermione Granger, she was in our house – funny girl, she is, but Ginny asked her to go shopping, and she flat-out refused and told her to bugger off."

Angelina laughed. "Yeah, I remember her. She and Ronald are dating, are they?" She grinned. "I can see that."

"She and Harry have been staying at our house – he's dating Ginny, can you believe that? Harry's really torn himself up about everything."

"I bet he has. You know, sometimes… sometimes I just can't do anything." She paused and looked down. "I'll be doing a chore or at work and something'll come over me, and it's like someone's squeezing my lungs, and everything reminds me of her. My mum, I mean. And I have to sit on the floor and close my eyes and literally _talk_ to myself like a mental patient before I can get up again."

He's touched that she's revealed a tiny part of her heart to him. "What do you say to yourself?"

"Stop it, Angie. Mum wouldn't have wanted it this way."

"And then you can just… get up again?"

She tugged on the end of one of her braids uncomfortably. "Most of the time. I've got help, though. You know," she said to the blank look George gave her, "I have my dad and Katie and Alicia and everyone else to come and get me up."

"Oh." He paused. "Answer one more question."

"Yeah, George?"

He glanced down at her athletic frame, her thick braids, and her dark skin. "Why'd you really come see me today?"

Angelina looked at George and smiled slightly. "I figured you might need someone to come pick _you_ up off the floor."

**Cheesy ending, sorry. And even though Angelina-and-George aren't exactly an ace pairing, I figured, what the heck? So I wrote a small one-shot about them. Tell me if you want more (or which pairing you think I should write for next). PLEASE REVIEW!! **


End file.
